I graduated from high school in 2012. In June of 2013 I was in Greece which was the beginning of a six month trip overseas.

I spent two months in Europe, the first in Greece with my family and two other families. We stayed in a villa on an island called Hydra and then were on a boat for the remaining time, seeing new, beautiful, tiny islands every day.

After Greece I met a group of friends in Amsterdam and travelled with them to Berlin. Friends who had gone to Berlin the year before had told me how much they loved it so I arrived very excited and my excitement was not lessened at all. We stayed for a week, exploring new parts of the city each day and went to a small festival on the weekend. Once I said goodbye to Berlin I took the train to Paris to meet my friend and together we went to Lisbon. Unfortunately we only had one week in Portugal, so we decided to stay in Lisbon and do day trips to nearby towns. It was the end of my Europe leg of the journey as I flew from Lisbon to Madrid and then Madrid to Mexico.

Meeting my best friend, Alyse, in Mexico, we flew to Guatemala where we stayed for five weeks, living with a host family, going to Spanish school and volunteering at a kindergarten in Antigua. We made friends, salsa danced, learnt how to speak Spanish (sort of!) and fell in love with Central America.

It took us 36 hours by bus to get from Guatemala to Panama, where we stayed for one night before we flew to Colombia. I don’t want to choose between countries but if I had to… I would choose Colombia. The people, the food, the beaches, the incredible surroundings, the hikes, all made it a place that I would never forget.

From Colombia to Ecuador, Ecuador to Peru, Peru to Bolivia, Bolivia to Chile (one night for a weird desert party), Chile to Argentina, Argentina to Melbourne. Each place was so special, leaving us with life long memories. We swam with pink dolphins, saw the sunrise at Machu Picchu, hiked up a volcano 5000 metres above sea level, salsa danced, shopped in Buenos Aires, saw red lagoons, went anaconda hunting, took thousands of buses, tried every sort of chocolate there was, had awkward photos taken in front of famous sights, met German people everywhere, sand boarded in the Peruvian desert and much, much more. 

If I had time, I would tell more stories but I reaaaaally need to write a few more blog posts before I go to bed.